It's All Part Of It
by Liloexp626
Summary: Stitch is awaken one night by the intense smell of blood coming from Lilo's bed. Why does her bed smell of blood? Why does SHE smell of blood? R&R!


Hey everyone!

I just got back from a loooooong vacation period (which wasn't vacation at all, lol wut), and school is just one week away! I took some advantage of my free time and took some time to write this. I'm proud of how it came out for two things: it's the first time I don't imply any Lilo/Stitch thing really serious (that they're in love or something, that is) and this time I tried a slightly different style of writing. Let's see what you think of it.

Hmmm, oh yeah. I had a break from Internet for a while as well, so I haven't had time to continue with my two current stories this month. Don't worry, now that I'm back, you'll have pretty soon the next chapters for ITCBTY and IINMY (Yeah, I'm too lazy to write the titles complete.

Read & Review!

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**It's All Part Of It**

Blood.

_Mmmfgh…_

Blood.

_Gonna get ya. Come with daddy, sweetheart…_

Blood.

_Ugh… this coconut cake smells kinda funny… or is it the coffee?_

Blood.

_Coconut cake… coffee…_

Blood.

_Huh?_

Blood.

_Fishy…__wet… blood…_

Blood.

_Blood…?_

_!!_

_BLOOD!?_

Stitch bolted upwards, his heart drumming like crazy. Neither the coconut cake nor the coffee in his dreams could have smelled like blood. Or –or could it?

_Okay… I was probably about to have a nightmare or something. YEAH. That was it. _

He inhaled deep, trying to get himself to calm down. He gasped. There it was again. The smell.

Blood.

Blood….

Human blood.

He turned his head to his left, where Lilo slept peacefully. His feet only made a faint, flat _plop_ sound when they reached the floor after he jumped off his cot. The odor didn't go away, as he'd wished; instead, it grew more intense as he approached his friend. He was becoming more worried with every second that passed.

_Lilo? Is –is she dead?_

Her chest was raising and falling at a slow, but steady rate. Didn't seem like she was dead… yet, anyway. He came up to her bed, his paws trembling slightly.

"L-Lilo?"

He grabbed at her shoulder and shook her gently, not wanting to do anything really brusque just in case she was seriously hurt. Lilo moaned discontent.

"Mmmfgh…"

"Lilo?" He insisted, shaking her with just a tad more of force. Lilo moaned once more.

"Huh? Stitch? Wass goin' on?" Her beautiful brown eyes stared at Stitch groggily through the darkness of the room, her eyelids half-open. Nothing in her voice denoted she felt pain or anything at all… just drowsiness. And some confusion too. Well, it was 3 AM and her best friend has shaking her stubbornly. Why wouldn't she be confused, for Pete's sake?

"Blood." Stitch said.

"What d'you mean?" Lilo asked slowly. By the looks of it, she was definitely still sleeping. Oh goody. Or maybe she was dying already- NO GOODY.

"Stitch smell blood. Lilo smells like –uhh…like blood."

"Oh?" Lilo sat up on her bed, rubbing her eyes. By first time, she noticed the faint tremble coming from Stitch's little soft paws. Then she felt her sheets wet and warm under her blanket. She removed it and stared with wide eyes and open mouth. She was completely awestruck.

Stitch was staring too, completely horrified. What he was looking at was a puddle of something thick and dark staining the fabric of the sheets. When Lilo had removed the blanket, the odor of blood had become more intense. It had to be. It was blood. _Her_ blood.

"Oh. Yuck."

"Lilo okay?" He asked softly, so softly that she didn't hear. Her delay in replying got Stitch even more worried. His voice had started to sound shaky as well. "I sorry! I very, very sorry! Stitch no want to hurt Lilo! Pleechiba naga dooka! Please don't die!"

The thing was that a few days ago, Lilo and Stitch had been playing "Zombie Head", a game that consisted on throwing a ball made of ragged pieces of fabric at each other from quite a good distance until someone missed it and let it fall, when the other came out as the winner. Stitch had thrown the ball at Lilo with a little more force than needed and it hit Lilo in the stomach, tackling her to the ground and leaving her breathless for a couple of minutes. Jumba had checked her and said she was alright. However, Lilo had been complaining of stomach ache and she hadn't felt well enough to go out to play with Stitch since that day. Instead, she had been resting on her bed or watching TV on the couch, curled up all the while as if to make the pain go away. Stitch had been pretty worried about her. However, Lilo had said yesterday that she felt alright and even went out with Stitch to get some shaved ice.

Now, though, Stitch didn't think Lilo was alright. It must be his fault that she's bleeding. Maybe –maybe he'd broken some bone inside her, or he'd blown her guts, or he'd wounded her stomach-

By the time Lilo had finally snapped out of it, Stitch was already curled up close to her, his back shaking unsteadily as he made whiny noises, his face fallen and his ears pressed to the back of his head. He was weeping.

"S-soka… meega no want to hurt Lilo… meega no want Lilo to die… isa Stitch's fault…"

"Stitch… I'm alright." Lilo shushed him gently. She took him into her arms, letting his body press against hers as he held her tightly. It occurred to her that he was like a little boy crying for his mom to stay with him at that moment.

"Soka... soka, Lilo." He wept into her hair. She made him pull away to look at him straight into his eyes.

"Stitch, I'm fine. I'm not going to die… not for a while, anyways."

Oops. Wrong thing to say.

Stitch's eyes had watered up even more and he had pulled her to him again, hiding his face among her long mane, shaking more violently. Lilo slapped a hand against her face, kicking herself mentally for being so stupid.

"No, no! I didn't mean that, Stitch! I'm alright!" She made him pull away once more to look at his black, shiny eyes. "I'm FINE. No need to worry about me. It's not your fault, and it's not something bad. Please don't cry. I'm not going to- well, I'm just fine, okay?"

She wiped a few tears that had started going down his hairy cheeks and smiled in a reassuring manner. Stitch sobbed a few more times before speaking again. "Lilo –Lilo not bad? Lilo going to be okay?"

"Yes."

Oh well, that was good to know. Lilo giggled and patted Stitch on the head before leaving him down again to stand up. The lights came on and Stitch was blinded for a while. When his eyes adapted to the light, he could see Lilo standing near her drawers, taking out another nightgown and clean panties. He watched as Lilo stood on the platform of the lift, and she stared back with concerned eyes.

"I'm going to the bathroom to change clothes. Are you fine?"

He nodded. She went down.

However, as soon as the platform was back, he rode on it and went downstairs. He sat down near the bathroom door and waited for five unbearable minutes.

_What if she doesn't know if she's hurt? What if… what if she didn't want me to worry and lied to me? What if she won't be alright?_

Finally, the door made a cracking sound, the kind of sound that a wooden door makes when it's opened. Lilo was already wearing another nightgown, so much different from the bloody one she was carrying on her hands. The smell of blood still clung to her, even though she had taken a quick shower. It wasn't as strong as before, but it was still there.

"Hey." She greeted him with a smile "I borrowed one of Nani's pads. I'll tell her we'll need to buy some more next time we go to the mall."

She went into the laundry room with Stitch hot on her heels. She lifted the lid of the washing machine and dropped her bundle of bloody clothes into it to wash it later in the morning. She stretched out her hand; Stitch took it. Both friends walked up to the lift silently until they were in their dome.

Stitch helped Lilo taking off the bloody sheets and leaving them in the basket. Since Lilo's mattress had been stained by her blood as well, they decided they'd share Stitch's cot for the rest of the night. Stitch cuddled close to Lilo while her arms held him to her protectively.

"If Lilo okay, then why she bleed?" Stitch asked to his friend. Lilo opened her eyes, forcing herself to be well-awake as she made her response.

"Remember how Nani smells kind of funny during a week or so once a month?" She asked. Stitch nodded. "Well, women usually do that. It's normal."

"But Lilo not woman yet. Lilo is little girl."

Lilo chuckled and kissed Stitch's forehead. "Well, yeah… kinda. I'm a girl, but not that little anymore. I'm already eleven. It's normal for girls to start bleeding just like women at this age, more or less. We were told at school that girls who live in places like Kauai usually start doing that earlier than girls that live in colder places. Something about hormones and stuff."

"Then… Lilo can stop bleeding now, if she want?"

"Heh, I don't think so. We can't help it. It's part of being a girl. It's something good, because that means I'll be able to have kids someday. So yeah, I guess this is good news." She stopped for a moment, thinking about something and then laughing gently. "And that means I'm not weird at all."

"Weird is good. Normal people boring."

"Yuh."

"Lilo?"

"What Stitch?"

"You… is growing up."

"Yeah, I know. It kinda scares me, you know…"

"Huh?"

"Yep. Like, I don't know… it's like one of these days I'll suddenly find myself being all a grown up. I like being a kid since that incident with Skip. I don't want to grow older and then just do the kind of stupid stuff that grown-ups usually do."

"Oh…"

"Uh-huh."

"Lilo naga stupid. Stupid heads… like Mertle… they gonna be stupid grown ups. Not Lilo. She smart girl."

"It's not only that, Stitch. I don't want to fall in love when I grow older and then just forget of you or something… if I had a boyfriend, I would have to spend time with him and then I wouldn't play all day with you like we always do. I'm afraid of that."

"Hmmm… then… if Lilo spend time with boyfriend… can Stitch be Lilo's boyfriend?"

Lilo giggled. "Nope."

"Oh?"

"Nani won't let me date anyone until I turn eighteen."

Stitch pressed his tongue against his cheek. "Bleh… oki-takka."

"But we could keep it a secret."

"Oh. Bootifa."

"G' night, boyfriend."

"G' night, gel-friend."

Lilo laughed softly. "It's girl-friend, Stitch, not gel."

"Oh… heh. Soka. G' night, girlfriend."

"G' night."

"Lilo?"

"Yeah?"

"Can Angel… bleed too?"

Lilo's eyes popped open with the question, then she shrugged.

"I've no idea, Stitch."

Actually, she wasn't even sure she wanted to know.


End file.
